Knit garment and method of making same



Jan. l0, 1939. L. A. KESSELMAN 2,143,444

KNIT GARMENT AND METHOD OF MAKING SAME 4Filed may s, 1937 ifa y LDUI A. KESELMAN, INVENTOR ATTORNEY.

permettiamo, 1939 i C 2,143,444

UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE Louis A. Kesselman,` Long Beach, N. Y. `Application May 3,`A1937, Serial No. 140,399

` claims. (ci. ca -17s) This invention relates in general to a neWand the neck. The reinforcement generally is in the improved method for making a fashioned knit form of a knitted strip of the same yarn as the garment, and in particular to a new method for body, but knitted with a less resilient stitch. attaching `sleeves to bodies in knitted wear where- This method, however, does not completely elimi- 5 by sagging and bagging of `the-cloth at the shoulnate the defect. r 5 der is eliminated, the garment is made` to look There are skilled workmen engaged in the knit and wear better, and the cost ofproduction is sweater industry who can manually knit two materially lessened. pieces of knit cloth together so that for all prac- By its very nature knitted wear is made of very tical purposes the result is a homogeneous piece;

resilient material which has a tendency tostretch that is, none but the experienced Will recognize l0 and sag and become baggy in the wearing. This the seam as such. `These people produce seamtendency is exaggerated inloose and ill fitting less sweaters, so to speak, wherein thesleeves garments,` and conversely, is lessened "and can are manually knitted to the body. In this be neutralir/:edin` the well fitting` and shaped method the shoulder material can not be cut l5 garments. back because that will produce a lot of free ends, 15

In the making of knitted sweaters, for instance, and the process requires either loops or selvage fashioning or shaping ofthe garment is very at the joining edges. Eliminating the seam, necessary at the sleeves where they are attached however, does not eliminate the sagging and to the shoulders. In knitting a sweater by hand, stretching shoulder.

stitches can be easily picked up or dropped, the A full fashioned garment can be made on an 20 knitted body can be widened or narrowed, as the automatic knitting machine in lthe following case may require, to achieve the fashioning or manner: Each time the cloth is to be'made narshaping desired.` Not so in the mass production rower the machine must be stopped, the""end neee of the same by machinery. I know of no ma-- dle must be removed by hand `and its loop transv chine, used in the manufacture of knit garments ferred to the adjacent needle before the machine 25 en mass, that will `automatically pick up or drop is started up again. If the cloth is to be 'widenedA stitches to makea fashioned`product-` the machine must also be stopped to permit the The general commercial practice isto` knit the manual insertion of the extra needles or needle. sweaters on reciprocating, fiat-bed knitting ma- This process is laborious and is not used in mass chines. The body is usually made in two secproduction systems.

' tions, front and back, the sides and top of the It is the principal objectv of this invention to same are then sewn together,` the neck is cut out provide a method of "producing a fashioned and trimmed, and then the sleeves are sewn on sleeve junction on a knitted garment with the aid either with or without cutting the body mateof automaticmachinery quickly and cheaply.

rial to narrow the'shoulders` It is a further object of this invention to facili- 35 Cutting back the material of the body where tate the production of hand fashioned (so called the sleeve attaches produces a better fitting garin the art) knitted garments. l

ment because that is what gives the fashioning` The primary feature of `thisinvention is that at the shoulders and chest. Where this is not by its use a shoulder fitting'garment is produced.

40 done, and it usually is not for the cheaper trade, Another feature of my method lies in that by 40 the upper part of the seam between the body and its use a visible seam at the arm pit can be thesleeve does not rest on the shoulder of the eliminated. i wearer but lies on the side of the arm. The Another feature of my invention lies in the effect is not only a baggy appearance when the means devised to insure uniformity of cut-backs garment is new, but the material tends "to at the shoulders for the sleeve insets. 45

stretch so that with wear the seams move down Still another feature of my invention is the to a lower position on the arm to increase the `pleasing Veffect of the ultimate result produced shabbiness. When the armhole is cut out of the by its 11S r body portion of the garment, the cutting usually" 'Additional objects and features of the inven-` follows an arcuate path which has no special tion will become apparent from the following 50 relation to the weave in the garment. specifications and the accompanying drawing, in

It is a common practice, in order to lessen Which: v l the sag of the armhole seam, to reinforce the Fig. 1 shows a knit sweater, laid out at, with sweater with a less elastic material placed on the the right sleeve attached, and the left sleeve about shoulder, epaulet fashion, between the seam and to be. 55

approximation of the locusof the thread at a given course in the body 2 of a knitted garment. If the cloth is cut parallel to this course, the thread is cut at each of its loops into Very small bits. These bits of thread are easily removed so that the loops of the next course are exposed and free. However, if the cloth is cut at an angle to line I, the thread is cut ateach succeeding course. Essentially, my new and improved method consists in taking the body portion 'of a knitted `garment which is knit unfashioned on a knitting machine, cutting out a substantially rectangular piece at the shoulder, and attaching the sleeve to the edges thus exposed, a portion of the cutting being along a course.

In Fig. 1 the shaded area-3 is the piece of cloth cut out: edge 4 5 is cut parallel to the knitted courses; edge 5 6 is cut across the courses. The knitted sleeve I is so made that the shoulder end 8 has eithera looped or selvage edge. The sleeve is attached to the body 2 by manually knitting end y,

8 to edge 4 5 and sewing the remainder of end 8 to edge 5 6. The result is illustrated at the right hand of Fig. 1. The visible seam is shown at 9; no seam is apparent at the armpit I0.

The principal feature of this method resides in that part of the armhole seam is along andparallel with the knitted courses in the body of the garment. This permits a portion of the sleeve to be attached by knitting means. However, the entire sleeve may be sewn to the body along the lines 4 5-6 (lines 4 5 6 5' in Fig. 2) Without reducing the fashioning effect. Fig. 2 illustrates, in perspective, a sleeveless garment made up of a front portion II and a back portion I2 with the armhole 4 5-B 5cut as I have indicated. It should be noted that when the garment is worn all the edges of the armhole are in the same plane with the armpit. It is not essential however that this be so; line 5 6 need not be cut perpendicular to line 4 5.

In cutting knitted cloth there is always the danger that the loose ends and loops set free will unravel and spoil the entire piece of cloth. In quantity production I first attach the sleeve to the body and cut out the superfluous matter afterward. Average skilled workmen in the art can turn the body and sleeve insidev out, pick out the loops in the body that are to be knitted to the sleeve, knit them to the sleeve and then sew the remaining portion up on a machine or by hand; the superfluous portion of the body is then cut out.

',. I prefer to leave a margin of body material when cutting along the sewn portion of the seam to allow the said material to be turned back on itself and sewn again to anchor the free ends vof the yarn more rmly. v

To facilitate attaching the sleeves by this latter method, and to insure uniformity of size and sleeve inset in the product the knitting machine v should be made to delineate the seam 4 5 6. Most knitting machines are adapted to do this.

In Fig. 3 is shown an enlarged detail of a knitted cloth taken in the vicinity of the armhole.

The stitch illustrated vis known as a plain stitch. At the place, I3, where the horizontal portion, 4 5 in Fig. 1, of the arm seam is to come the machine is made to change from plain stitch to purl stitch. Similarly, where the machine is to mark out the sewn portion I4 of the seam it is made to make a purl stitch; so too, is it made to show the line I5 along which the cutting is to be done. The type of stitch is not material, the principal requirement is that it be recognizable; and a loose stitch is preferable. In the illustration the change in type makes the delineating stitches stand out in relief. I prefer to have lthe entire operation of attaching the sleeve to the body done by hand, both the knitting and the sewing, with the yarn as thread and the stitches of the attaching operation connecting directly with the loops in the body ymaterial that is made to stand out in relief. But again, this is not essential to my method.

In the illustration, Fig. 3, the knitting of the fabric has proceeded in horizontal courses from the top down. The upper left-hand corner of the illustration, bounded at the bottom by line I3 and at the right by line I5, corresponds to the shaded portion 3 in Fig. 1.

It is possible to produce on an automatic knitting machine a garment body wherein the shoulder already has the shape required for my method of sleeve attachment: The machine is allowed to knit the body portion up to the line where the armhole begins. The machine is stopped, the number of needles required to produce the necessary inset are removed from the needle bed.- their loops caught up and prevented from untion. By this method the entire armhole 4 5- 6 5' has either a looped or selvage edge, and the sleeve 'can be knitted on so that no portion of the seam need be sewn.

My method of attaching sleeves to knitted gar ments, and the steps necessary to attain the fashioning effect produced thereby will be readily understood fromfthe foregoing description, and it will be seen that I have provided a simple, inexpensive and efficient process for carrying out the objects of my invention. Furthermore, while I have particularly described the elements best adapted to perform the functions set forth, it is obvious that various changes in form, proportion, and in minor details of production may be resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the principles of the invention.

What I claim is:`

1. In the production of a knitted garment, where the body portion is made with excess material at thearmhole and the attachment of the sleeve to the body is a separate operation, the method of securing uniformity in size and shape of the armhole seams comprising delineating by a change in stitch in the body portion the location of said seams, a portion of said delination being `along a course in the knitted garment and the remaining portion being substantially perpendicular to said course,

2. A method of producing a knit outer garment with sleeves comprising knitting the'body portion with excess material at` the armhole and delineating the location of the armhole seam by a change institch concurrently therewith, attaching the sleeve to the said body portion along the line indicated, and then removing the said excess material in the body portion; a portion of said delineating line being along a course in the body portion, and the `remainder of said delineating line being substantially perpendicular to said course. i m 1 3, A knit outer garnient with sleeves in which an armhole seam in both the front and back portions of the garment is along two lines substantially perpendicular `to each other;` one of said lines being along a coursevin the body of the garment and the sleeve is attached therealong by knitted means. theremainder ofthe seam being a sewn seam along the line substantially perpendicular to said course.

4. The methodof attaching the sleeve to the said sleeve to the 

